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About half of the $787 billion federal stimulus — what sticklers for legislative titles call the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act — passed in February has been spent, says Ed DeSeve, a special adviser to the president on recovery act funding.

DeSeve gave an update on stimulus spending to a group of state government reporters Friday. In particular, he said things like bolstering Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment insurance have helped states maintain services in the middle of the economic downturn.

“Almost $300 billion was appropriated out of the $787 (billion) for states,” DeSeve said, noting that $288 billion of the stimulus went for tax cuts. For states like North Carolina where recovery funds helped plug big budget deficits, that’s the good news.

“What do you think the bad news is?” DeSeve asked. “It’s going to stop at some point. The appropriation is time-limited across the recovery act.”

While each program is different, states only have another 12 to 18 months of cash flow from that extra federal money.

“At some point during the next two years...Congress is going to be faced with the need to rationalize the relationship between these spending accounts that they’ve given the states, or the money they’ve appropriated to the states during this period, and the great needs that the states have in their economies,” he said.

What?

That’s government-speak for Congress might be forced to decide whether to continue stimuluslike payments — even if it’s not called stimulus — to states beyond the 12- to 18-month window DeSeve mentioned earlier.

Even though some economic indicators say the recession might be over, DeSeve explained, states won’t begin to see their tax revenue bounce back until more people have jobs. And in the best case scenario, jobs return roughly 18 months after a recession hits bottom.

“It can also be as many as 30 to 32 months,” DeSeve said. So, states may find themselves struggling long after the first round of the stimulus runs out.

DeSeve stresses that he’s in charge of overseeing spending rather than setting policy. But he was asked whether the Obama administration might lead the charge for another round of payments to states.

“We are very closely working with governors, working with Congress and others to understand the problems that states have, and at some point that will all come together,” DeSeve said. “Right now, we don’t have any forward-looking policies. No one has announced a second stimulus. ...We’re very clearly aware of the problems and we want to have a conversation about the solutions at the right time.”

Angels getting wings

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has tapped a Greensboro man as an “Angel in Adoption,” part of an annual recognition given to foster care and adoption advocates from across the country by The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

Ken Tutterow is president and CEO of the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina and before that was on the group’s board, serving as chairman in 1989-90. In the 1980s, Tutterow and his wife cared for more than 50 infants.

Tutterow is one of more than 190 “angels” who will be recognized at a ceremony Wednesday.

House votes

HR 3548: Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009. The measure extends unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks in “high unemployment states,” those with jobless rates above 8.5 percent. North Carolina’s unemployment rate is well above that level.

The measure would cost $1.4 billion and could extend benefits — roughly $300 per week — to 21 months for those in the hardest hit areas.

Democrats Brad Miller of Raleigh and Mel Watt of Charlotte voted for the measure. So did Rep. Howard Coble, a Greensboro Republican.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Banner Elk Republican, voted against.

The final vote was 331-83.

Senate votes

Senators voted to table an amendment that would have expanded drilling offshore for oil and gas.

Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, voted to “table” or kill the measure.

Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, voted to support the measure.

The final vote was 56-42 to kill the expansion of drilling.
 

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com